Playing video games and keeping fit aren’t often seen as two activities that go together. 

But with many of us spending more time than ever sitting down, you might be thankful to learn that you can burn a significant amount of calories from the comfort of your own home while playing video games.

Betway online casino asked 17 gamers to play seven of the most popular video games for 90 minutes at a time, and revealed just how many calories we can expect to burn during our next gaming session, and how this compares to an actual workout.

You can burn a maximum of 538 calories per gaming session on average

Our experiment has revealed that Fortnite is the best game to play when it comes to burning off those gaming snacks with participants burning 194 calories on average, followed by Fifa (189) and Call of Duty (188).

Whilst Grand Theft Auto V came in last place, you can still expect to burn a decent amount of calories during 90 minutes of game time (164), making this game perfect for a light workout.

Gamer’s heart rates peak when playing Call of Duty

Whether it’s being moments away from completing a mission you’ve been working on for days or escaping a near death situation, it might not come as a surprise that some of our favourite games have the power to really get our hearts pumping:

Call of Duty: Warzone is revealed to be the video game that will get your heart rate peaking the most with participant’s average maximum heart rate reaching 119 BPM. 

Meanwhile, our study shows that Fortnite will get your heart racing the most on average with participant’s heart rates increasing to 89 BPM during a 90 minute gaming session. 

On the other hand, participant’s heart rate slowed down the most when playing Minecraft, making this the best game in the experiment for relaxing whilst still burning off a good amount of calories.

You’d need to do 353 squats to equal the amount of calories burned during 90 minutes of playing Fortnite

Asking our participants to measure their heart rate whilst doing squats, crunches and pushups, we’ve calculated how much exercise you’d need to do to equal the amount of calories burned whilst gaming:

You’d need to do 353 squats (or 162 push ups or 239 crunches) to equal 90 minutes of playing Fortnite, making this the best gaming alternative to a workout.

The next time you plan on skipping the gym in favour of some time with your console, refer to our guide above to calculate how long you’d need to play to burn off your goal calories.